Sprayable non-woven fiber weed barrier

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a sprayable nonwoven fiber weed barrier comprising an aqueous solution of nonwoven fibers and polymer binder. The aqueous solution can be directly sprayed onto the soil to suppress weed penetration through the soil. The sprayable nonwoven fiber weed barrier has a pore structure that allows water to penetrate into the soil, but curbs the growth of weeds.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application forPatent Ser. No. 61/419,399 filed Dec. 3, 2010, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to the agriculture industry in general,and specifically to sprayable non-woven fiber weed barriers. Alsodisclosed is a method of suppressing weed penetration through soilcomprising applying a sprayable non-woven fiber weed barrier to thesoil.

BACKGROUND OF THE TECHNOLOGY

Weeds are undesirable plants that rapidly grow in gardens, planters, andlawns. Controlling and preventing weed growth is crucial to healthyplant maintenance. If not controlled, weeds can quickly overtake a lawnor garden, strangling desirable plants and blocking grass from receivingcrucial sunlight.

Many types of products exist for controlling and preventing weeds; fromselective herbicides (e.g. Weed-be-Gone), to complete herbicides (e.g.Round-up), to fiber barriers. Selective herbicides are effective atcontrolling and killing existing weeds, however, they do not prevent newones from growing. Also, selective herbicides may also harm desirable,broadleaf, plants. Complete herbicides are extremely effective atkilling anything green and temporarily prevent new weeds from growing.However, as the name suggests, complete herbicides will kill both weedsand desirable plants, thus, limiting their use.

Fiber barriers are nonwoven polymer fabrics also known as “landscapefabrics” or “geotextiles.” These are typically UV stabilized and shrinkproof polypropylene spunbound or meltblown nonwoven fabrics dyed black,brown, gray, or white and sold in rolls to contractors or retail stores.The main purpose of fabric is to suppress weed growth while allowingwater, air, herbicides, fertilizer, and insecticides to flow into thesoil. Weed control typically ranges from 1-15 years, depending on thequality of the barrier and how it is applied.

Weed barriers serve four significant functions: weed restriction, soilseparation, reinforcement, and filtration. Additional advantages of weedbarriers include: reduces watering, allows nutrients and air topermeate, reduces garden maintenance, promotes the growth of plantroots, minimizes erosion and loss of mulch due to soil intrusion, lowerenvironmental impact than herbicides, long lasting weed control, andresists mildew, rotting, and insect invasion. Common locations for useinclude: golf courses, urban medians, residential homes, plantcontainers, and gardens.

U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/0178272 discloses a spray-onweed blocking film made from a mixture of binding agent, wetting agent,dispersing agent, stabilizing agent, and a filler material. The fillermaterial comprises powdered clay. Total solids in the mixture is between40%-60% by weight mixture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Unfortunately, fiber weed barriers also have several disadvantages,including expense, significant time and labor involved in applying,requires specialized people and equipment to install on a commercialscale, does not biodegrade, and can reduce the size of certain plants byrestricting outward growth. Additionally, clay based sprayable weedbarriers result in poor moisture transfer and must be applied in highvolumetric densities. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop afiber weed barrier that still provides long lasting weed control, but iseasier and cheaper to apply. Further, it would be desirable to develop asprayable weed barrier with improved moisture transfer than clay basedbarriers that can be applied at lower volumetric densities.

The present disclosure provides a fiber weed barrier that is easy toapply and controls the growth of weeds. In one aspect, a sprayablenon-woven fiber weed barrier is disclosed comprising an aqueous solutionof nonwoven fiber and polymer binder. The nonwoven fiber can bepolypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide, polystyrene, or mixtures ofthese. The sprayable non-woven fiber weed barrier has better moisturetransfer than clay based sprayable weed barriers and can be applied atlower volumetric densities, which allows for less material to besprayed.

In another aspect, a method of suppressing weed penetration through soilis disclosed comprising: providing a sprayable non-woven fiber weedbarrier comprising an aqueous solution of nonwoven fiber and polymerbinder; contacting said sprayable non-woven fiber weed barrier to soil;and drying said sprayable non-woven fiber weed barrier to evaporate offwater. The drying step cures the polymer binder and creates porosity insaid weed barrier. The drying step can also evaporate any optionalsolvent present in the aqueous solution.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Disclosed is a sprayable nonwoven fiber weed barrier comprising anaqueous solution of nonwoven fiber and polymer binder. The nonwovenfiber comprises macroscopic particles of nonwoven material. Theparticles are held in suspension in the aqueous solution. The nonwovenfiber can be polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide, or polystyrene. Themacroscopic particles are formed by chopping, grinding, or pelletizingnonwoven sheet material; or spinning, blowing, wet lay-up, or spraydrying a solution of nonwoven material. The macroscopic particles havean average length between about 100 microns and about 1000 microns,including between about 100 microns and about 800 microns, about 100microns and about 500 microns, and about 100 microns and 300 microns.The macroscopic particles have an average diameter or width of betweenabout 10 microns and about 100 microns, including about 10 microns toabout 50 microns, and about 10 microns to about 25 microns. The ratio ofmacroscopic particle length to diameter/width is between about 1:1 toabout 100:1, including about 1:1 to about 75:1, about 1:1 to about 50:1,and about 1:1 to about 25:1.

The polymer binder can comprise any type of polymer that will bindtogether the macroscopic particles and also cure under ambientconditions. Such binders can comprise polymers having cellulose, latex,polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, paraffin wax, polyethyleneglycol, polyacetal, poly methyl methaacrylate, ethylene vinyl acetate,silicone, polyamide, polyurethane, acrylic and polyethylenaminecomponents. The polymer binder should be soluble in an aqueous solution.The aqueous solution can further including a solvent to aid in thedissolution of the polymer binder. The solvent can be organic ornon-organic, polar or non-polar, including ethanol, hexane, or acetone.A surfactant can also be present in the aqueous solution to aid indispersing the polymer binder.

The weight percent of nonwoven fiber in the aqueous solution can rangefrom about 10% w/w to about 90% w/w, including about 20% w/w, about 30%w/w, about 40% w/w, about 50% w/w, about 60% w/w, about 70% w/w andabout 80% w/w, depending on the type of polymer binder used. The aqueoussolution can further comprise an addition component, including UVstabilizers, anti-microbials, fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, orcolarants. These additives can also be added to the nonwoven fiber priorto formation or during formation of the macroscopic material.

The fiber weed barrier has a pore size that is large enough for water topenetrate the barrier but small enough to prevent weed penetrationthrough the barrier. This suppresses weed growth and seed germination,thereby controlling the growth of weeds. The pore size can be betweenabout 0.01 mm and about 1 mm, including 0.2 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.4 mm, 0.5 mm,0.6 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.8 mm, and 0.9 mm. The fiber weed barrier can have athickness between about 0.1 mm and about 10 mm, including about 0.5 mm,about 1 mm, about 1.5 mm, about 2 mm, about 2.5 mm, about 3 mm, about3.5 mm, about 4 mm, about 4.5 mm, about 5 mm, about 5.5 mm, about 6 mm,about 6.5 mm, about 7 mm, about 7.5 mm, about 8 mm, about 8.5 mm, about9 mm, and about 9.5 mm.

The sprayable nonwoven fiber weed barrier is applied to the ground orsoil by contacting the aqueous solution to the ground or soil and dryingthe aqueous solution to evaporate off the water and any optional solventand or surfactant. The drying cures the polymer binder and createsporosity in the seed barrier. Spraying the aqueous solution results in arandom orientation of fibers, such that multiple path ways for watertransport are created. The resulting weed barrier allows water topermeate the soil, but prevents the growth of seeds, weeds, and runnersbeneath by suppressing weed penetration through the soil.

EXAMPLES

Examples of the present disclosure are provided below.

Example 1

Nonwoven fiber particles are created by milling flash-spun polyethylenenonwoven sheet material (Tyvek 1070D, DuPont) in a Hosokawa Bantamhammermill (Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems, 10 Chatham Road, Summit,N.J. 07901, USA). Chopped sheet particles averaging 600 micron diameterare combined with a water-based polyurethane binder (Witcobond A-100) ina 20% weight ratio along with surfactant and mixed at 2000 rpm with acowles-blade mixer for 10 minutes. Resultant fiber particle/binderdispersion is sprayed onto a cardboard surface with a gravity fed, highsolids air spray gun to yield a rough-surfaced coating withapproximately 1.5 mm thickness. The coating is allowed to cure atambient conditions and contains no visibly apparent voids or holes.Water is sprayed onto the surface and moisture is visibly apparent onthe backside of the cardboard surface within 10 minutes as evidence thatmoisture is transmitted through the physically continuous membrane.

Example 2

A similar experiment to Example 1 is performed using 2 oz/sqyd spunbondpolypropylene (Oxco Corp, Charlotte, N.C.) and provides near identicalresults.

While the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity and understanding, it will be appreciated by oneskilled in the art from a reading of this disclosure that variouschanges in form and detail can be made without departing from the truescope of the invention and appended claims.

What we claim is:
 1. A solid, porous weed barrier: wherein the solidbarrier is formed by spraying an aqueous solution of nonwoven fibermacroscopic particles and polymer binder; wherein the solid barriercontains pores ranging in size between about 0.01 mm and about 1 mm;wherein the pores of the solid barrier are formed after contacting theaqueous solution with soil and allowing the aqueous solution to solidifyby curing under ambient conditions; wherein the microscopic particles inthe solid barrier form a random orientation of fibers; wherein themicroscopic particles have an average length of between about 100microns and about 1000 microns; wherein the barrier contains no visiblyapparent voids or holes; and wherein the formed barrier is sufficientlysolid to be a physical barrier to weed growth and sufficiently porous toallow water to penetrate through the solid barrier.
 2. The barrier ofclaim 1, wherein said macroscopic particles have an average length ofbetween about 100 microns and about 500 microns.
 3. The barrier of claim1, wherein said macroscopic particles have a ratio of length to diameterof between about 1:1 to about 100:1.
 4. The barrier of claim 1, whereinsaid polymer binder comprises a component selected from the groupconsisting of: cellulose, latex, polyethylene, polypropylene,polystyrene, paraffin wax, polyethylene glycol, polyacetal,polymethylmethacrylate, ethylene vinyl acetate, silicone, polyamide,polyurethane, acrylic and polyethylenamine.
 5. The barrier of claim 1,wherein said aqueous solution further comprises a solvent.
 6. Thebarrier of claim 5, wherein said solvent is an organic solvent.
 7. Thebarrier of claim 1, wherein the thickness of the barrier is betweenabout 0.1 mm and about 10 mm.